Consultative Management style

A consultative management style can be viewed as a combination of the above two. The manager will ask views and opinions from their staff, allowing them to feel involved but will ultimately make the final decision.

Laissez Faire Management style

A laisses faire manager sets the tasks and gives staff complete freedom to complete the task as they see fit. There is minimal involvement from the manager. The manager however does not sit idle and watch them work! He or she is there to coach or answer questions, supply information if required. There are benefits, staff again are developed to take responsibility which may lead to improved motivation. However with little direct guidance from the manager staff may begin to feel lost and not reach the goals originally set within the time frame.

 

What are the disadvantages of external sources of finance?

External sources of finance can be categorised as either short term or long term. Short term sources of external finance include a bank overdraft or loan, hire purchase, trade credit, leasing and debt factoring. Long term funds can be raised either by issuing shares or by taking out a long term loan. Each different source of finance has its own advantages and disadvantages.

An overdraft or short term loan can usually be arranged quite easily with the bank, however the rate of interest may be high, which makes this source expensive.

Hire purchase involves paying for an item, e.g. computer equipment, with instalments over a period of time. In addition to the cost of the item interest must be paid. This means that when the firm finally finishes paying for the item they will have paid more for it than if they had bought it outright at the beginning.

Trade credit is the time allowed by firms between receiving an item and actually paying for it. However, if firms habitually delay payment beyond the agreed terms, e.g. 30 days, they risk ruining their relationship with the supplier. This might lead to problems in the future.

Lots of firms use leasing as way of financing company cars. They pay a monthly fee to the leasing company in return for the car. The main disadvantage of leasing is that at the end of the lease period, for example three years, the car still belongs to the leasing company, although the firm may have the opportunity to buy the car outright at a preferential price.

Debt factoring is the practice of selling your unpaid debts to a factoring company. So, for example, if you have unpaid invoices of £100,000 a factoring company may pay you £90,000 for them. You receive the £90,000 and no longer have to chase the debtors. The main disadvantage of this is that the full value of the invoices is not received.

Issuing shares is a good way to raise large amounts of long term capital. The firm will only have to pay a dividend to shareholders if it makes sufficient profit. However, the process of issuing shares is complicated and expensive and the firm will need the help of specialist organisations.

Taking out a long term loan is simpler and less expensive in the short term. However, interest will have to be paid on the loan and the bank will require some sort of collateral to guarantee repayment. Collateral is a fixed asset, e.g. land or buildings that the bank could sell to recoup the loan in the event that the firm cannot repay it.

 

Advertising

Do you pay attention to advertisements? Probably you do, because advertising is a reflection of people's needs. Advertising makes promises to us, and we listen because we want to hear those messages. For instance, we might drink diet Coca-Cola "just for the taste of it," or Pepsi because we want to share "the choice of a new generation."

But advertising can be deceptive. When an aspirin manufacturer tells us "no other aspirin is better," we assume that brand of aspirin to be the best, unless we know that all aspirin is alike. As another example, I once bought a can of chocolate-flavored syrup only to find that it contained no chocolate; it contained only chemicals to make it taste like chocolate.

Childers and Houston (1984) compared the importance of pictures to words in advertising. When the experimenters asked the subjects to pay attention to the visual content of an ad, they remembered the name of the product better than when they were told to pay attention to the words. Color and repetition are also effective in getting people to remember a product, but are not always used (Lee & Barnes, 1990). On the other hand, sometimes advertisers put too much information into an ad and consumers have difficulty remembering it, a phenomenon called information overload (Jacoby, 1984).

Advertisers sometimes use very attractive, seductive, and sexually appealing models. Sex appeal is used to sell everything from automobiles to after-shave lotion and soft drinks. Most consumers (as well as advertisers) assume automatically that the use of sexually attractive models will enhance the success of a product. Actually, relatively few conclusive research results have been found about this issue.

Sexually attractive models do get the attention of both men and women. People tend to look at advertisements using sexually attractive models more often than they look at other ads. But research shows that often the wrong audience is reached with the ad. For instance, both men and women look at advertisements containing pictures of sexually attractive women, but the actual advertising message is read more often by women. Thus, using an attractive female to get men to read an advertisement often doesn't work. Likewise, advertisements using attractive males are actually read more often by men. While more research is needed in this area, it appears that sex in advertising is not always effective (Caballero & colleagues, 1989).

 

Trade Patterns in Textile and Clothing

By Hildegunn Kyvik Nordas

This section analyzes trade patterns in textiles and clothing during the period 1995-2002. China was the world's largest exporter both of textiles and clothing in 1995 as well as 2002. Its world market share (excluding intra-EU trade) increased from 22.5 per cent to 30 per cent over this period in the clothing sector and from 16 to 22 per cent in the textile sector. The other dominant exporters of textiles in both years are Italy, Germany, Republic of Korea, Chinese Taipei, France, Belgium, Japan and the UK, while Turkey and India had made it to the top 10 list in 2002. Developed countries thus dominate exports in the textiles sector, indicating that the case for continued protection is weak. In the clothing sector the major exporters in addition to China are Italy; Hong Kong, China; Germany; France; Turkey; India; Indonesia; Republic of Korea and Thailand. Mexico had made it to the top ten in 2002, ranking fifth, mainly due to NAFTA.

SOURCES OF IMPORTS TO USA AND THE EUROPEAN UNION

Since 1995 the share of the ATC countries (Canada, the EU and the United States) in world imports of textiles has increased from about 35 per cent to 43.5 per cent in 2002. The increase is mainly due to an increase in the US's share from 14 to 21 per cent while the shares of EU (again excluding intra-EU trade) and Canada have remained stable at about 19 and 2.7 per cent respectively. Turning to clothing, the ATC countries' combined share of world imports has increased from 62 per cent to 67 per cent during the same period. Canada's share has increased, but is only about 2 per cent in 2002, while the EU and the United States are moving in opposite directions. The EU's share declined slightly from about 32 per cent to about 30 per cent, while the US share increased from 30 per cent to 35 per cent. Thus, the ATC countries are relatively more important markets for exporters of clothing than for exporters of textiles. The second half of the 1990s saw changes in both the EU and the United States in relation to the sourcing of textile and clothing imports, reflecting regional trade agreements and structural changes in the textile and clothing sectors.

Growth in imports of textiles to the United States during the period 1995 to 2002 was about 9 per cent annually in nominal dollar terms. We notice the sharp increase in Mexico's market share, probably reflecting the impact of NAFTA. The regionalization of the market is further indicated by the entry of Honduras among the 10 largest suppliers, while Japan has fallen out of the top 10 list. We also notice that low-income countries in Asia such as India and Pakistan have climbed in the ranking at the expense of higher-income Asian suppliers such as Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong, China; although India's market share has remained constant. Also China's market share has been fairly stable during the period 1995-2002.

Total imports of clothing grew somewhat less than textiles, at an annual average rate of about 5.5 per cent in nominal dollar terms. Mexico has increased its market share sharply also in the clothing sector, but after catching up with China in 1999, the market share has fallen back somewhat and China had more than regained its 1995 market share by 2002. One noticeable development during the period is the increase in the market share of "Other" reflecting the entry and growth in market share of a number of smaller suppliers, notably Sri Lanka (the eleventh largest). We also notice the sharp fall in relatively high-cost Asian exporters' market shares, e.g. Hong Kong, China; Chinese Taipei and Republic of Korea. Among the 10 largest exporters in textiles and clothing to the USA in 2002, all but Italy faced quotas on some products (US Customs Services, 2003).